Short Walk At Punggol Park (22 Feb 2017)

I occasionally would pass by Punggol Park but it never occured to me to go there for my night macro photography session until now. This is a town park that has been around for more than 20 years, which is considerably the oldest in the Hougang/Punggol/Sengkang area.

Looking at the location and its popularity for joggers and bicyclists, I was not hopeful that the place would have many beetles. Nevertheless, I thought it will be interesting to give it a try this time round. As expected, the place was full of joggers even though it was about 8 pm when I reached the place.

Interestingly, there were many of this Banded Bullfrog (Kaloula pulchra) around the park.

The first beetle of the trip was a 5 mm Darkling Beetle which was encountered only after a while of searching.

More walking before finding a tree with several of this 3 mm Darkling Beetles.

Coming to a low bush, I was surprised to find this lone Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis) having its dinner.

On a small tree near by was this Darkling Beetle nymph.

More walking before I encounter this 3 mm Darkling Beetle on a layer of silk-like covering on a small tree.

More walking without finding any beetles until this Chafer Beetle (Aprosterna pallide) found on a low tree.

The last beetle for the trip was a small 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

This trip was as I have expected but I am glad that I can still find a few beetles on this trip. It is sad that the number of critters encountered is so small, especially so for an old town park.

Flew In Visitors (17 Feb 2017)

I was caught up with some last minute office work and ended up having to forgo my weekly night macro session. All was not lost as this was an interesting week where I somehow encountered a few flew in beetles.

For a nature lover like me, this is one of the wonderful aspects of living in Singapore - we are so close to nature even though you may be staying in an urban residential estate. Special thanks to all our greening pioneers who started the Singapore's greening campaign in 1963, and the continuous efforts by NParks in transforming Singapore into a City in a Garden. Well done NParks!

Coming back to this week blog, the first beetle was a 3 mm Ladybird Beetle (Menochilus sexmaculatus) that flew on my best friend while we were having a cuppa at a coffee shop.

This Tortoiseshell Beetle (Silana farinosa) was encountered when I was walking from the bus stop to my house. This beetle is commonly called Curry Leaf Tortoiseshell Beetle as they are commonly found among the curry leaf plant (Murraya koenigii). When I first encountered this beetle, I thought it was a sick Tortoiseshell Beetle badly infected by a nasty fungus. It was only later that a netizen identified this to be Silana farinosa Tortoiseshell Beetle.

This Mango Flower Chafer (Protaetia acuminata) was found on its back at a neighborhood shopping mall and was at risk of being step on until I found it. It could be from the roadside mango trees and was attracted by the bright lights at the mall.

The last beetle encountered this week was a 5 mm Leaf Beetle that I found on the floor of a lift lobby. Given where it was found, it was a wonder that it was not stepped on before I got to it.

This is not the first time I encountered flew in beetles and I am confident that I will encounter more in the future.

Night Walk At Venus Drive (10 Feb 2017)

The weather was surprisingly fine despite what the weatherman said about us having wet weather for the next few weeks. I was particularly looking forward to this session as I was wanting to field test my new macro flash setup as mentioned in my blog last week. To make the best of the session, my friend HW and I decided to go to Venus Drive for the night macro session.

Here's a shiny Pill Bug that we encountered during the trip.

The first beetle of the trip was a small 2 mm Darkling Beetle which looked very much black to the naked eyes until you zoomed closer for a beetle look. This beetle was next to a large group of Bark Lice, which looked a little bit like ants on steroids.

I was surprised to find some of the Elephant Ear Plant growing to humongous size along the trail. This is probably due to the lesser disturbance due to the on-going constructions at the place. On an Elephant Ear plant leaf was this small 3 mm Ant-like Flower Beetle (Anthelephila cyanea).

Just a few trees away was this large 30 mm Chafer Beetle (Phyllophaga marginalis).

As we entered into the main trail we were greeted by this small 3 mm Fungus Weevil.

On a nearby tree was a lovely 2 mm Darkling Beetle.

Next to the 2 mm Darkling Beetle was a 6 mm roundish looking Darkling Beetle that has a purplish sheen under the camera flash.

On a small tree nearby was a Long Horned Beetle (Coptops annulipes) resting motionlessly on the tree trunk.

On a low bush next to the Long Horned Beetle was a Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus), I am glad to find this beetle as it has been a while I last encountered this beetle.

Coming to a standing dead tree, it was wonderful to find this lovely metallic colored Ground Beetle (Catascopus dalbertisi) running around the trunk.

Just centimeters from the Fungus Beetle was another Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula).

Going further down the trail, a small 3 mm shiny Darkling Beetle was found hiding in a crevice of a tree.

On the same tree was a 8 mm Fungus Weevil which was actively moving up and down the tree trunk.

On another tree nearby was this roundish 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

Interestingly, there seemed to be a number of this Checkered Beetle encountered during this trip.

Near to the Checkered Beetle was this tiny 1 mm Fungus Beetle.

The trip has been wonderful so far with a number of beetles already been encountered. Coming to a small tree, I found this Darkling Beetle (strongylium tenuipes) resting on the side of a large tree.

Coming to a rotting log and on it was this Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis).

On the other end of the log was this commonly encountered 10 mm Darkling Beetle.

Walking further down, we came across a small tree with a handful of this lovely bluish color Darkling Beetle.

On the same tree was a 12 mm beetle. I am not able to identify this beetle but it looked very much like a Darkling Beetle.

On the same tree trunk was some white fungus growing on it and feeding on the white fungus was a lone Sap Beetle.

At the base of the same tree was a lovely bronze coloted 2 mm Darkling Beetle.

Walking further, my eyes were drawn to this small 5 mm Darkling Beetle.

On a leaf nearby was this brown Ground Beetle resting motionlessly on a leaf. Surprisingly this particular specimen was not as skittish as other Ground Beetle and allowed me to photograph it without flying away.

Tucked away on one end of a dead log as this 15 mm Darkling Beetle.

Walking a few meters and I found this bronze colored Chafer Beetle.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this lone Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulenta).

Owing to time constraint, we decided to call it a day. Just then a small 2 mm was found busily traversing a tree trunk.

On the way out of the trail, I found this Chafer Beetle under a large leaf.

The last beetle for the trip was this Ground Beetle (Onypterygia longispinis) which looked very much like the Ground Beetle encountered earlier on, except for the black pronotum and head..

The trip was very much beetle and Venus Drive will remain as my top beetle site.